Official Newsletter of the WANA Seed Network
No. 32,
January 2007
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News, views, comments, and suggestions on varieties and seeds are included in this section. It is a forum for discussion among professionals in the seed sector.
The Power of Seeds
A SeedQuest editorial by Dr Norman E. Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
During my lifetime, seed technology has been the catalyst that has averted mass starvation on planet Earth. At today's 6.4 billion, the world's population is four times the 1.6 billion people who lived when I was born in 1914. How many more can the earth feed without destroying the forests and wildlife habitat? The answer hinges on the extent of a continuing stream of ever-more-powerful seeds, based on focused research, until population stabilizes.
Of course, we all know that to stay ahead of the 'population monster' requires more than seeds alone. It requires essential policy changes at the highest levels of governments plus improved production technologies: mineral was well as organic fertilizers, better tillage practices, more efficient irrigation, and weed control. But, without the catalyst - the power of seeds - better policies and production technologies will not be enough.
Let me describe a few examples of positive results from focused research. I first started serious work on seed technology in 1944 as a Rockefeller Foundation scientist with the cooperative Government of Mexico-Rockefeller Foundation agricultural research program. Even with imported foodgrains at the time, many Mexicans were hungry. Based on the wheat and maize (corn) varieties that we developed, and while population continued a brisk increase, Mexico became self-sufficient in foodgrains by the mid 1950s.
In the mid 1960s, India and Pakistan were experiencing hunger, and two provinces in northeast India suffered famine, even while millions of tons annually of food aid, mostly wheat, were imported. Malthusian thought was re-awakening. Two widely read books at the time contended, in effect, "Let's write off India, it's hopeless; let's only provide our food aid to countries that have a chance." With the power of the high-yielding seeds and production technologies that we introduced, together with improved policies, Pakistan in 1968 and India in 1974 became self-sufficient in foodgrains and they have essentially remained so.
Though few people outside the country knew it, China during the Cultural Revolution experienced widespread hunger and famine. Many millions starved. At the time of my first trip to China, in 1974, universities were closed, food was rationed, things were miserable. On my more than 12 trips, I witnessed remarkable progress. Although population has increased by nearly 50 percent, to 1.3 billion, most Chinese today are well fed and enjoy a much higher standard of living, thanks to the power of seeds as the catalyst. In the early 1970s, China acquired from Pakistan some of our 'Mexican' short-strawed, high-yielding wheat seeds. China also benefited from improved varieties of rice provided by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. But China's overall success resulted from sound national research that provided a continuous stream of better seeds and production technologies, accompanied by a set of policies to support increased production.
The positive experiences in Mexico, India, Pakistan and China result, largely, from the catalytic power of three seeds: wheat, rice and maize. Many other countries of Asia, the Middle East and Latin America also benefited from these improved seeds. But what about Africa?
Sub-Saharan Africa is my greatest worry. In most of the area, maize is more important than either wheat or rice. High-yielding, disease-resistant quality protein maize, based on research, is an important development for many African families who have little milk, eggs or meat because of animal diseases and poverty. The protein quality of QPM is close to that of skim milk, resulting in improved health.
What is required for sub-Saharan Africa, in addition to better seeds of wheat, rice and maize, I believe, is focused research to enhance yields and quality of some of the 'orphan' crops that are important in the diets of Africans: cassava, sweet potatoes, sorghum and millet, lentils and cowpeas, among others.
More generally, for planet Earth's growing population, both conventional and biotechnology research on food crops and livestock, both private- and public-sector funded, is absolutely essential to provide ever-more-powerful seeds as well as a continuing stream of improved technology to energize the catalytic power of seeds. Source: Plant Breeding News Edition 166, 30 April 2006.
Genetically Modified (GM) Plants with non-GM Pollen as an Alternative to Achieve Biosafety
Environmental safety is key issue in the introduction of genetically modified crops. Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (V-GURT), dubbed 'terminator technology' or 'terminator' in the popular press, is now promoted because of its value in biologically containing GM-crops. V-GURT pollen produces sterile seeds, if they cross with neighboring crops. However, pollen and sterile seeds still contain the transgenes. Opponents point out that these transgenes can still enter the food chain, although they may not spread in the environment. 'Terminator' is, however, criticized much more because it provides a biological protection mechanism that is much stronger than any patent or breeder's right (see Seed Info 29), which may force farmers to depend only on formal seed suppliers.
Researchers at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands have developed a different approach for dramatically increasing environmental biosafety: GM-plants that produce non-GM pollen. In principle, the system removes all transgenes from the genome of the modified plant, but only during early pollen production. As a result, the transgene(s) of interest, which may confer insect or disease resistance, or is involved in the production of specialty chemicals, is active in the GM plant, but it is not present in pollen. When there is out-crossing with neighboring non-GM crops or wild relatives in natural ecosystems, the cross produces non-GM seeds. This novel mechanism is achieved by adding a combination of a highly pollen-specific promoter with the Cre-lox recombination system to the transgene of interest in such a way that all material, including the recombination system, is removed. The pollen ends up with only 34 base pairs of foreign DNA. Any gene can be inserted within the region that is going to be removed - genes that regulate pest or disease resistances, specific metabolic pathways, etc.
The biosafety value lies in the fact that transgene dispersal to neighboring non-GM crops or crossable relatives (either weeds or plants in natural ecosystems) is eliminated. The advantage compared to V-GURT is that the transgene is not present in pollen and seeds; this might be considered a food safety advantage when the (industrial) crop pollinates a food crop. A disadvantage of the new approach is that spillage of seed from GM plants may produce fertile GM plants outside the cropped field. The further spread of that plant and its transgenes will be slow, because in each generation the transgenes will be removed from the pollen. The approach has some similarities to the strategy of chloroplast transformation: in most crop plants pollen does not contain chloroplasts.
The commercial possibilities of this method are being discussed. Some seed production issues need to be resolved, since a variety will always produce 50% GM and 50% non-GM offspring after self-pollination. The method is readily applicable for vegetatively propagated crops, such as potato, fruit trees and roses, but it may have to be combined with a seed selection method in order to become economic in seed crops. The additional work on breeding and seed production should be cost-effective in high-value crops and depends largely on the added value of the transgene-encoded trait. The new approach seems particularly useful for specialty crops, such as the production of fine-chemicals in tobacco. It could, however, also work for disease resistance, where 50% of resistant plants in the field may significantly reduce disease incidence and reduce the need to plant special catch crops such as non-Bt cotton strips in insect-resistant cotton fields.
This new method can be an interesting approach to biosafety, as it does not imply the biological protection of 'Terminator'. Any farmer can reproduce the seed and any breeder can use it in further breeding, subject to the national seed laws and intellectual property rights system. In this sense, the non-GM pollen approach could be considered a different and attractive alternative to 'Terminator'. For those with a subscription to the journal, the full scientific article entitled 'Directed microspore-specific recombination of transgenic alleles to prevent pollen-mediated transmission of transgenes' by L. Mlyn?rov?, A.J. Conner and J.P. Nap is available from the Plant Biotechnology Journal or can be obtained from the last author. Niels Louwaars, Centre for Genetic Resources, WUR, the Netherlands, E-mail niels.louwaars@wur.nl and Jan-Peter Nap, Applied Bioinformatics, Plant Research International, WUR and Hanze University Groningen, the Netherlands, E-mail janpeter.nap@wur.nl.
Harmonization of Seed Policy and Phytosanitary Regulation in Andean Community of Nations
The Andean Community of Nations (CAN) is a sub-regional organization with international legal status, composed of five countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The key objectives are to promote balanced, harmonious and equitable development of the member countries to boost growth through economic integration and social cooperation, with a view to the progressive formation of a Latin American common market, and to strive for a steady improvement in people's standard of living.
In 2003, the American Seed Trade Association funded a project for harmonization of seed policies and phytosanitary regulations in the CAN to enhance seed trade in the region. The Iowa Seed Science Center coordinated this project.
All five countries participated in a series of six workshops conducted in the region through their national plant protection offices, seed departments and seed industry. Based on phytosanitary scientific information and the tools of process management, consensus was reached for regional harmonization of seed policies and phytosanitary regulations for selected seed crops: rice, maize, sorghum, field beans, soybean, potato and cotton.
The project was completed in September 2005 with the following accomplishments:
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Elimination of unnecessary quarantine pests from national lists. The list of 379 quarantine pathogens was reduced to 112. |
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Development and approval of common seed certification standards for field and seed of the seven selected crops. |
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Development and submission of an Andean Community Seed Law, to the CAN Secretariat, to amend CAN Decision No 193 of 1981 with a modern law that regulates variety release, seed production and certification, and will serve as an umbrella for the Andean countries. |
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Development of phytosanitary accreditation manuals for seed export for each country (except Peru), describing in detail the procedures for the accreditation system for seed export. Phytosanitary accreditation is the official recognition by the National Plant Protection Office that accredits organizations to carry out their own phytosanitary field inspections and/or seed health testing. Accredited entities are any public or private organization or individual that meet the requirements established in the accreditation system. |
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Development of seed certification accreditation manuals for the five countries. The manuals allow the accreditation of seed companies to carry out their own seed certification. |
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Development and submission of a proposed 'CAN Decision' on phytosanitary accreditation and seed certification accreditation. This will serve as a general framework for approval by the countries through the Andean Community Secretariat. |
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Development of three models of quality manuals based on process management, for use in training staff from the private seed sector: Quality manual for seed companies; Quality manual for seed testing laboratories; and Quality manual for seed certification agencies. |
All public and private sector country representatives agreed on the way forward on the implementation of the agreements to enhance seed trade in the region and with other trading partners. Source: Iowa Seed & Biosafety, Spring 2006.
Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops in 2006
ISAAA Brief 35 characterizes the global status of commercialized genetically modified (GM) crops in 2006, now more often called biotech crops. The focus on developing countries is consistent with ISAAA's mission to assist developing countries in assessing the potential contribution of biotech crops to food security and alleviation of poverty and hunger.
In 2006, the global biotech crop area continued to increase as the 100 million ha barrier (250 million acre) was breached, when for the first time 10.3 million farmers in 22 countries planted 102 million ha of biotech crops, up from 90 million ha planted by 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries in 2005. This unprecedented high adoption rate is testimony to the trust and confidence of millions of small and large farmers in crop biotechnology in both industrial and developing countries.
During the last 11 years (1996 -2006) farmers have consistently increased their plantings of biotech crops by double-digit growth rates every single year since biotech crops were first commercialized in 1996. The global biotech crop area increased more than sixty-fold in the first 11 years of commercialization, making biotech crops the fastest adopted crop technology in recent history. The global area of approved biotech crops in 2006 was 102 million hectares (ver 250 million acres) up from 90 million ha (220 million acres) in 2005. The increase of 12 million ha (30 million acres) between 2005 and 2006, was the second highest in the last five years, and equivalent to an annual growth rate of 13% in 2006. It is noteworthy that more than half (55% or 3.6 billion people) of the global population of 6.5 billion live in the 22 countries where biotech crops were grown in 2006 and generated significant and multiple benefits. Also more than half (52% or 776 million ha of the 1.5 billion ha of arable land) of the cropland in the world is in the 22 countries where approved biotech crops were grown in 2006.
In 2006, 22 countries grew biotech crops, 11 developing countries and 11 industrial countries; they were, in order of hectarage, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, China, Paraguay, South Africa, Uruguay, Philippines, Australia, Romania, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, France, Iran, Honduras, Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, and Slovakia. In 2006, the US followed by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India and China were the six principal adopters of biotech crops globally, with India for the first time replacing China at number five in world ranking by planting more Bt cotton than China. The US retained its number one position globally with 54.6 million ha (53% of global biotech area), followed by Argentina 18.0 million ha, Brazil 11.5 million ha, India 3.8 million ha and China 3.5 million ha. Of the 54.6 million ha in the US, approximately 28% were stacked products containing two or three biotech traits in a single variety. The stacked products, currently deployed in the US, Canada, Australia, Mexico, South Africa and the Philippines, are an important and growing future trend which is more appropriate to quantify as "trait hectares" rather than hectares of adopted biotech crops. Accordingly, number of "trait hectares" globally in 2006 was 117.7 million ha compared with 102 million ha of biotech crops globally, a 15% variance.
The largest absolute increase in biotech crop area in any country in 2006 was in the US at 4.8 million ha, followed by India 2.5 million ha, Brazil 2.1 million ha, with Argentina and South Africa with 0.9 million ha each. India had the largest year-on-year proportional increase, with almost a three-fold or 192 % increase from 1.3 million ha in 2005 to 3.8 million ha in 2006, followed by South Africa at 180% from 0.5 million ha in 2005 to 1.4 million ha in 2006, and the Philippines with over a 100% increase from approximately 0.1 million ha in 2005 to 0.2 million ha in 2006.
Soybean continued to be the principal biotech crop in 2005, occupying 58.6 million ha (57% of global biotech area), followed by maize (25.2 million ha at 25%), cotton (13.4 million has at 13%) and canola (4.8 million ha at 5% of global biotech crop area). Herbicide tolerant alfalfa, the first perennial biotech crop to be introduced globally was planted on 80,000 ha in the US and RR® Flex herbicide tolerant cotton was introduced on over 800,000 ha in the US and Australia. Virus resistant papaya, a fruit/food crop, was recommended for commercialization by China's National Biosafety Committee in the last quarter of 2006.
In 2006, herbicide tolerance, deployed in soybean, maize, canola, cotton and alfalfa continued to be the most dominant trait occupying 68% or 69.9 million ha followed by Bt insect resistance at 19.0 million ha (19%) and stacked traits occupied 13.1 million ha (13%). Stacked traits were the fastest growing trait group between 2005 and 2006 with 30% growth, compared with 17% for insect resistance and 10% for herbicide tolerance.
Biotech crops were grown by approximately 10.3 million farmers in 22 countries in 2006, up from 8.5 million farmers in 21 countries in 2005. Notably, 90%, or 9.3 million of the beneficiary farmers were small resource-poor farmers from developing countries, whose increased incomes from biotech crops contributed to the alleviation of their poverty. In 2006, approximately 9.3 million small resource-poor farmers (up from 7.7 million in 2005) benefited from biotech crops - the majority were in China with 6.8 million, 2.3 million in India, 100,000 in the Philippines and several thousand in South Africa including many women Bt cotton farmers, with the balance in the seven developing countries, which grew biotech crops in 2006.
During the period 1996 to 2006, the proportion of the global area of biotech crops grown by developing countries increased every year. More than one-third (40%) of the global biotech crop area in 2006, equivalent to 40.9 million hectares, was grown in developing countries where growth between 2005 and 2006 was substantially higher (7.0 million hectares or 20% growth) than industrial countries (5.0 million hectares or 9% growth). The increasing collective impact of the five principal developing countries (China, India, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa) is an important continuing trend with implications for the future adoption and acceptance of biotech crops worldwide.
Global accumulated impact of biotech crops for the decade 1996 to 2005, in terms of net economic benefits to biotech crop farmers, was $27 billion ($13 billion for developing countries and $14 billion for industrial countries). The accumulated reduction in pesticides from 1996 to 2005 was 224,300 MT of active ingredient, equivalent to a 15% reduction in the associated environmental impact of pesticide use on these crops.
There is cause for cautious optimism as the unprecedented growth in biotech crops, witnessed in the first decade of commercialization 1996 to 2005, continues in 2006, the first year of the second decade of commercialization 2006 to 2015. Indeed growth between now and 2015 may well surpass that in the first decade, as more biotech crops will be developed in mega-investment projects to meet ambitious biofuel targets. It is evident that biotechnology offers very significant advantages for increasing efficiency of biofuel production in both industrial and developing countries and will be a major factor in biofuel development in the future. Adherence to good farming practices, such as rotations and prudent management of insect resistance for biotech crops will remain critical, as it has been during the first decade. Continued responsible stewardship must be practiced, particularly by the countries of the South, which will be the major deployers of biotech crops in the coming decade. Source: CropBiotech Special Edition, ISAAA Brief No. 35-2006, 18 January 2007.
ISF Position Papers on Intellectual Property Rights
The use of proprietary parental lines of hybrids
ISF members consider that proprietary parental lines of hybrids must not be used by third parties for the purpose of breeding, except when agreed upon by the owner. Proprietary parental lines include, for instance, parental lines protected by patent, plant breeder's right, trade secret, contract, or any other relevant legal mechanism.
Seed of proprietary parental lines may incidentally happen to be included in bags of commercial hybrid seed. Proprietary parental lines may also incidentally happen to be present in fields in which hybrids are grown. In both cases, this presence results from technicalities in producing and processing hybrid seed and does not reflect the owner's intent to make its parental lines available to the public. ISF considers that it is contrary to generally accepted ethical standards of commercial morality in the seed industry to take advantage of this presence by using those proprietary parental lines for further breeding.
To protect themselves against the unauthorised use of proprietary parental lines, for the purposes of breeding, breeders may use any relevant legal mechanisms including bag tag warnings and/or shrink-wrap agreements.
Use of DNA markers for DUS testing, essential derivation and identification
ISF has already stated that it opposes the use of DNA markers alone for DUS testing before important issues have been adequately addressed, such as (i) definition of minimum distances for distinctness, (ii) impact on the concepts of uniformity and stability, and assessment of these criteria, (iii) public availability of informational markers.
ISF recommends that answers to those important questions must be obtained and until such time reaffirms its opposition to the use of DNA markers as decisive characteristics for granting protection compliant with UPOV. This use would put at risk the essence of the plant breeder's right, by possibly reducing the minimum distance for distinctness to a difference of only one base pair, or by leading to impractical standards for uniformity or stability.
In contrast, ISF considers that DNA markers may be used for the identification of an already-protected variety, in particular in case of alleged misuse of that variety or misuse of a parental inbred line in the case of a hybrid variety. DNA markers may also be used to define genetic similarity trigger points for starting a dispute resolution process in cases of alleged essential derivation, or to determine the presence or absence of a specific gene or mutation whose expression or lack of expression is responsible for an essential characteristic of the variety. For more information, visit the ISF website at: www.worldseed.org/positions.htm.
International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Accredits its 100th Seed Testing Laboratory
Since the introduction of the ISTA Quality Assurance Accreditation Program for seed testing laboratories in the early 1990s, the number of participating laboratories from the public and the private sector has increased continuously. The NCVESC Seed Testing Laboratory in Hanoi, Vietnam, became the 100th accredited laboratory of ISTA in June 2006. The aim of the ISTA accreditation program is to harmonize the performance of ISTA-accredited seed testing laboratories on a high level worldwide. With the two pillars of the program, the ISTA International Proficiency Test Program and the ISTA International Audit Program, ISTA can assure the trueness and reproducibility of test results on international level; an important precondition for smooth international seed trade. Recent studies show that ISTA-accredited laboratories perform better in proficiency tests than non-ISTA accredited laboratories. Source: ISTA News Bulletin No 131, April 2006.
ISTA also announced the 8th ISTA Proficiency Test on GMO testing on soybean (Glycine max). Since GMO testing has been introduced in the ISTA Accreditation Program, participation in the ISTA proficiency tests on GMO testing is compulsory for laboratories which have included GMO testing methods in their scope of accreditation. The ISTA proficiency test on GMO testing is also open to any laboratory involved in GM seed testing. The participating laboratory can select the method appropriate to detect the presence or absence of GM seeds and to quantify their presence in samples of conventional seeds. Laboratories interested in participating in the proficiency testing should send their registration form to the ISTA Secretariat as soon as possible. More details are available on the website www.seedtest.org.
Asian Seed Congress in Kuala Lumpur a Success
The Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) held a successful Asian Seed Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 12-16 November 2006. The Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute led the local organizing committee in co-hosting the Congress. The conference attracted over 700 delegates and guests from 39 countries, including business executives, scientists, academics, policy makers and government officials involved in the seed industry.
The events included a pre-Congress UPOV workshop. Technical sessions on the Malaysian seed industry, the maize seed industry in Asia, public-private sector partnerships, and the latest trends in seed technology involved distinguished experts in each field. The conference also saw a change in APSA leadership from Past President Mr Kazuo Hatsuda to 2006/07 President Mr Mengyu Zhang from China, who promises an even more successful congress in 2007, to be held in Manila, Philippines.
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| APSA president Mr Zhang Mengyu, (left) gives an award of recognition to Past President Mr Kazuo Hatsuda |
Meanwhile, APSA's Executive Committee has appointed Dr. Sampan Campiranon as Acting Director of the Association. Dr Sampan will take full responsibility in managing the APSA Secretariat in its implementation of all programs and policies.
Dr. Sampan brings with him extensive experience in agriculture and biotechnology, both as an academician and a private sector business executive. He holds a PhD in plant physiology and master's degree in botany (both from University of Minnesota) and master's degree in agronomy (Kasertsart University, Thailand).
Dr Sampan also has a strong research background, with 18 years of experience in product and marketing development, biotechnology, government affairs and international management systems. He has variously served as Monsanto's Senior Product Development Manager; Associate Dean Faculty of Science of Khon Kaen University; and taught plant physiology and botany at Kasertsart University. He authored a textbook 'Biotechnology in agriculture' which is used by several universities in Thailand. He also writes articles on agriculture for magazines. Beth Erlano, Managing Editor, APSA, Bangkok, Thailand; E-mail publications@apsaseed.com .
Monsanto Acquires Delta & Pine Land Co.
Monsanto Company signed an agreement with Mississippi-based Delta and Pine Land Company for the former to acquire the largest and longest global running private cotton breeding and seed program. Monsanto reports that Delta and Pine Land's strong cotton genetics will enhance the company's goal of providing high quality cotton varieties for farmers. DPL Co's extensive plant breeding programs, including its diverse base of international germplasm, has enabled the development of cotton varieties for the last 90 years. Both companies believe the merger will strengthen both domestic and international cotton seed business by enhancing efforts to produce second-generation biotech trait offerings. For more information see the press release at www.monsanto.com/monsanto/layout/media/06/08-15-06.asp. Source: CropBiotech Update 18 August 2006
FAO Initiative Widens Literature Access to Developing Countries
Over 100 poor countries will now get access to leading food and agriculture journals at little or no cost, with the launch of the second phase of the Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) initiative. AGORA is a public-private partnership between FAO, 37 leading science publishers, and other key partners including the World Health Organization and Cornell University. Introduced in 2003 and providing access to 69 low-income countries, AGORA today serves universities, colleges, research institutes and government ministries and NGOs in an additional 37 lower-middle-income countries.
Under the second phase of AGORA 37 countries with per capita GNP of between $1000 and $3000 will be eligible. Institutions wishing to register will have a three-month free trial period before they are asked to pay an annual subscription of $1000. FAO will invest all subscription income into local training initiatives to help increase awareness and usage of AGORA amongst librarians and scientists.
AGORA is making an important contribution to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals by providing essential information to improve the livelihoods of those who need it most. For more information contact Alison Small, Media Relations, FAO, Rome, Italy; E-mail alison.small@fao.org